Radiohead: Pablo Honey: Collector's Edition / The Bends: Collector's Edition / OK Computer: Collector's Edition Album Review | Pitchfork April 16 2009 Radiohead's first three albums are given expanded 2xCD reissues. When Capitol released a few different shortcuts through Radiohead's career late last year, we were indifferent to its cause, citing a lack of need and poor selection. Most fervent Radiohead fans would have wasted their money buying these packages, and most people interested in the band would be best served by their actual albums. Well, Capitol has now begun to roll out those parent albums-- starting with the group's three 1990s releases (Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer)-- again, without the band's participation. This time, however, the label is doing it right, dressing the releases up with the right accoutrements: B-sides from the era (and since the era overlapped with two-part CD singles, there are plenty), radio sessions, and music videos.

For an epochal, era-defining band, Radiohead had an unusual beginning, looking like they'd wind up one-hit wonders, chancers callously attaching themselves to a sound and moment yet with few ideas of their own. That first hit, "Creep", with its loud/soft dynamic and self-loathing lyric, fit snugly into the post-Nirvana alt-rock landscape-- no surprise: Radiohead copped as much from 80s indie rock as their Pac NW brethren did. Yet instead of being hamstrung by platinum success, Radiohead abandoned careerist moves for artistic ambitions, moving quickly to incorporate the record-collector's music of post-rock and Mo Wax, the post-dance, spiritually nurturing end of UK rock, and the pre-millennial tension of IDM and trip-hop. By the end of the 90s, Radiohead hadn't supplanted U2, R.E.M., Oasis, and Metallica as the world's biggest rock band.

But it was largely agreed upon that they were the world's best-- and with hindsight, arguably, along with the White Stripes, the last indie-friendly group to conquer the world and punch in the same weight class as early 90s alt-rock giants like Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Green Day, or Red Hot Chili Peppers. That they used this critical and commercial currency to such dazzling effect on Kid A and Amnesiac is still one of the highlights of this decade; that the press, especially in the UK, chose the more familiar and necrophiliac "new rock revolution" over the relatively pioneering Radiohead is one of the decade's lows. UK rock, for all its heady artistry and visionaries throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, had been slumming it a bit when Radiohead first emerged. Size and grandeur, which would become the goals for too many UK guitar bands by the end of the Britpop era, were largely missing from that country's indie scene when Radiohead started recording in 1992.

Sure, the Stone Roses had trumpeted their own greatness a few years earlier, but most of the era's indie music was introspective, bands content to gaze at their shoes rather than aim for the back of the venue. Radiohead's early, full-bodied music was, in most circles then, dismissed as empty Americanisms-- and not without reason. The expansive Pablo Honey set-- the 12-song album accompanied by 22 extras-- mostly highlights a group in hock to U.S. indie heroes Pixes and Dinosaur Jr. (with the occasional R.E.M. homage tossed in-- see: "Lurgee"). The loose "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and delicate "Thinking About You" thankfully break up the 120-minute mood, but most of the rest of the album is squarely in the post-grunge wheelhouse. That's not always a bad thing: "Stop Whispering", opener "You", and a re-recorded version of early single "Prove Yourself" hold up well-- and "Creep" has oddly gotten better with age.

Elsewhere, the dreadful "Pop Is Dead", and songs like "How Do You?", "I Can't", "Ripcord", and "Vegetable" are run of the mill at best. If Pablo Honey didn't betray hints of the band Radiohead would become, neither did its B-sides. Unlike contemporaries such as Blur, who used their non-album material to explore new ideas or moods, Radiohead's Pablo Honey-era work is primarily lesser versions of the album. The extra material kicks off with their debut release, the Drill EP, which features three rudimentary versions of LP tracks, plus "Stupid Car", the first of Thom Yorke's odd automobile-themed fixations (still to come: "Killer Cars", "Airbag", the "Karma Police" video...) From there, it's a mishmash of alternate takes and also-rans (highlight: the U.S. single version of "Stop Whispering"), with only the shoegazey "Coke Babies" and an acoustic version of early political commentary "Banana Co." (released in much better form on The Bends package) worth exploring more than a few times.

I distinctly remember then the first time someone suggested The Bends was a great record. Not being one of the million-plus Pablo Honey owners at the time, I was content to hear "Creep" on the radio over and over and expected I'd soon spend about as much about time with Radiohead's catalog as one would with, say, Hum or Ned's Atomic Dustbin or School of Fish. The My Iron Lung EP had beaten The Bends to U.S. record shelves by a few months, and the "High and Dry" / "Planet Telex" single was out a few weeks prior as well, but few noticed. Anyone who had explored those two earlier singles, however, would have been excited for the LP. A reaction to the success of "Creep", "My Iron Lung" found Radiohead still exploring the loud/soft dynamic, but guitarist Jonny Greenwood was also locating his own identity and Yorke, inspired by Jeff Buckley, was using a wider vocal range, including some falsetto. Balancing a slightly artier sense of musical self-destruction with a sinewy guitar line, on "Lung" Radiohead found new ways to pick apart and re-construct the typical alt-rock template.

Elsewhere on the EP, the five B-sides demonstrated a band whose collective heads seemed to crack open and spill out new ideas, moving the group away from the dour dead-end of grunge signifiers: With more loose-limbed and nimble guitar work ("The Trickster"), hints of art-rock ("Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong"), the valuing of texture over riffs ("Permanent Daygliht"), offers of emotional nourishment ("Lozenge of Love" and "You Never Wash Up After Yourself") and tension and apprehension about workaday life ("Lewis [Mistreated]"), and themes of misanthropy (um, most of the five songs), these tracks pointed the way toward what was to come. The band's next release, the "High and Dry" / "Planet Telex" single, announced that they'd arrived.

"Planet Telex", an early exploration with loops and studio enhancements for the group, is their first song that could have fit on any of their albums, regardless of how experimental they grew; "High and Dry", meanwhile, is the blueprint for the big-hearted balladry that spawned the careers of imitators Travis, Starsailor, Elbow, and Coldplay (who, let's face it, wound up perfecting this sort of huggable, swelling arena rock). The Bends was essentially split between these poles: warmth and tension; riffs and texture; rock and post-rock. The tricks employed by "Planet Telex" were rarely bested on it-- only arguably by "Just"-- while the "High & Dry" version of the band was topped at every turn here, especially on "Street Spirit (Fade Out") and "Fake Plastic Trees". Even B-sides such "Bishop's Robes" and "Talk Show Host" come close to matching "High". To many fans, this more approachable and loveable version of the band is its peak. I can't agree, but the record is still a marvel.

It feels, with hindsight, like a welcome retreat from the incessant back-patting and 60s worship of prime-period Britpop and a blueprint for the more feminine, emotionally engaging music that would emerge in the UK a few years later-- led by OK Computer. Alongside late 1996 or 1997 releases by Verve, Spiritualized, Belle and Sebastian, Cornershop, Mogwai, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Primal Scream, Super Furry Animals, the Beta Band, Mansun, and even Britpop stars Blur, Radiohead's OK Computer led the push back against knuckle-dragging Oasis clones who segregated their Boomer rock leanings from the fertile explorations of dance, classic indie, hip-hop, and art-school sensibilities going on throughout the rest of the UK. But once again, the press chose what they knew over the new, and despite the plaudits for 2000's Kid A, by the time of 2001's Amnesiac, people wanted another The Bends.

OK Computer was the balance everyone agreed upon though-- real songs and tunes, but ones that didn't shrink from the increasingly unlimited possibilities of modern music-making. In that sense, Radiohead were not only record-collectors but futurists, approaching the 21st century from the perspective of their day rather than from the generation prior, as Stereolab, Broadcast, Tortoise, and others were doing (to wonderful effect, granted). Discounting the breather "Fitter Happier", only "Electrioneering" seems like a misstep on the album today, with the white-knuckle "Climbing Up the Walls" and pre-album teaser "Lucky" now standing firmly alongside more entrenched highlights "Paranoid Android", "No Surprises", "Karma Police", and "Let Down". The record's B-sides are no less rewarding, especially "Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)" and "Melatonin", which would have fit fine on LP itself. "Palo Alto" proves they could do light and tongue-in-cheek, while "Meeting in the Aisle" makes you wonder why they don't record more instrumentals.

The group's eventual fascination with, for a successful 90s guitar band, relatively foreign sounds like IDM and 20th century classical music found root around this time and it's on these extras where they first explored these notions. Maybe you don't need to buy these again, maybe you own the material already. If you do, sure-- pass. If you have the LPs but stopped there, both The Bends and OK Computer are worth getting in these versions. If you're curious or a completist, Pablo Honey is out there, too. That the band had nothing to do with these is beside the point: This is the final word on these records, if for no other reason that the Beatles' September 9 remaster campaign is, arguably, the end of the CD era. That all of those discs are coming out at the same time, rather than being slowly and ceremoniously rolled out as they were 20-odd years ago, is a tacit acknowledgment by the music industry that they best sell non-vinyl physical products now, immediately, before the prospect of doing so is gone.

With that in mind, I find it wise that many bands are wisely re-organizing their pasts, or having it done for them by their label. So long as it's done like this, I'm happy to re-purchase the stuff. DMOZ - Arts: Music: Bands and Artists: R: Radiohead DMOZ Arts Music Bands and Artists R Radiohead 52 Critics' darlings Radiohead are an Oxford, England-based group that have released six studio albums and one live album. Their first album "Pablo Honey" was released in 1993 and the song "Creep" became a monster hit. The band's 1997 album "OK Computer" won them international recognition and was hailed by many critics as one of the best albums of the 1990s, and by some as one of the best rock albums of all time. Subcategories 9 Radiohead's Discography Ranked :: Music :: Lists :: Radiohead :: Paste Radiohead's Discography Ranked Share Tweet Submit Pin There are things that I don’t like to talk about late-night in bars because of the polarizing, intense discussions that are bonded to them.

There’s politics, religion and what’s better: Radiohead ’s OK Computer or Kid A. Like it or not, the band is one of the most celebrated by fans and critics alike, and looking back on their catalog alone shows all the proof you need that they’ve released eight incredible albums. After our staff voted, argued, apologized and then argued some more, we’re taking a look at all of them today and ranking them from best to worst (although a bad Radiohead album trumps many other bands’ good albums). 8. Pablo Honey Sometimes praising a band’s “early stuff” isn’t the safest bet. Radiohead proves that with Pablo Honey, the band’s early-’90s debut that also sees them at their most awkward—just take a look at Thom Yorke ’s hair in any performance from the era to see proof of that. And although it spawned a classic in “Creep,” and “You” can still be an incredible listening experience, it’s not a mystery as to why the band doesn’t rehash any of these tracks live anymore, especially considering what they’ve put out since. 7.

The King of Limbs Like any album Radiohead ’s put out since Kid A, we sat down with The King of Limbs, gave it many, many hard listens. Unlike Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief or the absolutely majestic (but definitely equally jarring) Kid A, this one never grew on us. Sure, there were great moments (the danceable single “Lotus Flower” and the pretty “Codex”) and yes, this is a good album, but not by Radiohead standards. 6. Hail to the Thief Maybe Hail to the Thief’s scattered, schizophrenic artwork should have acted as a warning to fans. Although the album saw a return of the roaring, electric guitar to the band, it also saw the band at its most inconsistent with songs that sprawled all kinds of territory. “Myxomatosis” boomed speakers with its fuzzed out, heart-thumping synthesizers, “There There” lulled listeners with layered toms and “2 + 2 = 5” kicked it all off, psyching out first-time listeners with bleeps and bloops before launching into a distorted guitar attack.

After all, we were at the dawn of the internet age, shortly after the reelection of Dubya. Maybe this lack of focus was exactly what we needed. 5. Amnesiac Less than a year after the highly acclaimed Kid A, Radiohead delighted fans in 2001 with the release of Amnesiac, and although it was recorded during the same sessions, the album shouldn’t be misinterpreted as Kid B. It offers a similar sound, but Amnesiac is more of a reaction to its predecessor than a grab-bag of b-sides. Standout tracks such as “I Might Be Wrong,” “Knives Out,” “Morning Bell” and “You and Whose Army?” showcase the band at its best, proving that these are a far cry from Kid scraps.—Shaina Pearlman 4. The Bends The cover art of The Bends captures lead singer Thom Yorke as a pixelated medical dummy covered in sterile electrodes. It’s a fitting metaphor for a band on the cusp of escaping the corporeal restraints of traditional music to explore an uncharted sonic wilderness that would make them modern audio deities.

But for a fleeting 12 songs, the Oxfordshire quintet not only paid homage to the psychedelic alt rock they once idealized, but nearly perfected it. The title track’s serrated guitars and soaring vocals christened the new theme song for teenage alienation while “Fake Plastic Trees” is still an emotional tour de force guaranteed to make anyone with a soul cry in less than five minutes. There’s a subset of devotees who say that Radiohead hasn’t released an album as good as this seminal masterpiece. Listen to Yorke’s angelic falsetto eulogize “fake plastic love” and it’s hard to disagree.—Sean Edgar 3. In Rainbows Radiohead fans had to patiently wait for the release of the bands seventh album, In Rainbows, and by the time it was released, fans didn’t have to pay a high toll for the listening experience. Well, they didn’t have to pay anything, if they didn’t want to. The album is maybe best known in our culture as the birth of the “pay-what-you-want” model. But if you read too much into this, you’ll overshadow one of the band’s finest pieces.

The lyrics on the album reflect Yorke’s fear of mortality on “Jigsaw Falling into Place” and “Reckoner.” The sound of In Rainbows is classic Radiohead (if there is such a thing), pushing the limits of expectations and experimenting with sounds that any person (besides Yorke) couldn’t ever imagine.——Laura Flood 2. OK Computer No other album from the ‘90s left such a lasting legacy, marking a clear transition from hook-oriented Britpop to more experimental, prog-friendly rock. Sonically, it’s atmospheric and uninhibited, allowing room for themes like paranoia and self-doubt to find their way into the lyrics without beating listeners over the head with the concept. It’s a record you can revisit as many times as you need to, an old friend to call up whenever you’re feeling a little inadequate. It more than holds up to repeat listens; it’s such a complex, unique album that it demands them. OK Computer effortlessly tapped into the introspective, tortured energy of Generation X, and in doing so, it became a landmark record, proving there was a place on the charts for non-traditional song structures and emotionally vulnerable lyrics.

In short, it was a weird record for weird times.—Bonnie Stiernberg 1. Kid A It’s a lush, beautiful 40-something minutes of electronic blips, whirrs, synths and mumbles, and yes, it’s better than OK Computer. It’s an age-old argument that’s had Radiohead fans up in arms since the decade that’s followed Kid A’s release, but Radiohead ’s biggest, boldest move in the recording industry (and that includes In Rainbows’ pay-what-you-like stunt) remains their best work. Although OK Computer is filled with undeniable fan-classics like “Paranoid Android,” “Let Down” and well, pretty much all of the other songs, Kid A sees the band at their most confident, beautiful and convincing. Radiohead - Biography - Band Members - Discography Radiohead A British Oxford-based alternative rock band formed in the late 1980s, Radiohead had a surprise hit with "Creep" from their debut album Pablo Honey in 1993. However, the band proved not to be one-hit-wonders. Their next album, The Bends, won critical acclaim and showcased the band's talent for writing songs.

With OK Computer came another surprise hit, "Paranoid Android", combining excellent songwriting with hooky guitar riffs and a dose of depression and gloom. Other (even more depressing) tracks from the album became hits too. This was Radiohead's peak, after which they have continued to release high quality albums, at times experimental in nature and often the subject of criticism, but less in the public eye. Despite the criticism, Radiohead have become recognized as innovators in the modern music scene. The band has been likened to bands such as Pink Floyd, R.E.M and The Beatles. Radiohead are in the process of recording their 7th studio album. More information will be posted here when it becomes available. Discography Radiohead on Apple Music To preview a song, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to buy and download music. Biography At some point in the early 21st century, Radiohead became something more than a band: they became a touchstone for everything that is fearless and adventurous in rock, inheriting the throne from David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and the Talking Heads.

The latter group gave the band its name -- it's an album track on 1986's True Stories -- but Radiohead never sounded much like the Heads, nor did they take much from Bowie apart from their willingness to experiment. Instead, they spliced Floyd's spaciness with U2's messianic arena-rock heft, bridging the gap with guitar skronk borrowed from the '80s American underground. Jonny Greenwood's jagged, brutal interjections on "Creep," the band's 1993 breakthrough hit, recalled the ugly noise of the Pixies and Nirvana, a sound that translated over the expanse of an ocean, but in the throes of the alternative rock explosion of the mid-'90s, Radiohead were the odd band out. America remained besotted with their homegrown sensations, so "Creep" was treated as a one-hit wonder, and at home in England, they were seen as dour art-rock students lacking the glamour of neo-glam sensations Suede, and deliberately dodging the beery singalongs of Oasis.

During the peak of Brit-pop in 1995, Radiohead released The Bends, a significant leap forward from their 1993 debut, Pablo Honey, and while that gained them some traction, it was 1997's OK Computer that broke down all the doors for the band and changed alternative rock in the process. Expanding their sound with electronica and unapologetic prog rock suites, Radiohead turned into a different band with OK Computer and the world followed suit. Soon, whenever rock bands dabbled in electronics, it was derived not from tightly sequenced rhythms, but rather, from glassy textures and introspection, a sensibility pioneered by the quintet. Radiohead doubled down on this aesthetic on 2000's Kid A, a record that traded concise hooks for minimal arrangements and jazz, providing a dividing line between an audience that once loved the group for their guitars and those listeners attracted to the band's aspirations. From this point on, Radiohead would occasionally flirt with concise song structures but were drawn toward unusual paths in both their music and business. Once their contract with EMI expired, they remained an independent band, pioneering different avenues of digital releases.

They issued 2007's In Rainbows with little warning, letting listeners pay whatever they'd like for the record -- cementing Radiohead's reputation as a band compelled to look forward, not back. Every member of Radiohead were pupils at Oxfordshire's Abingdon School. Ed O'Brien (guitar) and Phil Selway (drums) were the eldest, followed by a year by Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano) and Colin Greenwood (bass). These four musicians began playing in 1985, dubbing themselves On a Friday, and before long they added Colin's younger brother Jonny, who'd previously played in Illiterate Hands with Yorke's brother Andy and Nigel Powell. Jonny started on keyboards but moved to guitar, yet this incarnation proved short-lived. By 1987, everyone but Jonny left for university, where many members pursued music, but it wasn't until 1991 that the quintet regrouped and started gigging regularly in Oxford.

Eventually, they came to the attention of Chris Hufford -- then best-known as the producer of shoegaze stars Slowdive -- who offered the group the chance to record a demo along with his partner Bryce Edge; the two soon became the band's managers. EMI bit at the group's demo, signing them in 1991 and suggesting they change their name. On a Friday became Radiohead and they recorded their debut EP, Drill, with Hufford and Edge, releasing the record in May 1992. Next, the group entered the studio with producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade to record their full-length debut. The first fruit from these sessions was "Creep," a single released in the U.K. in September of 1992. "Creep" didn't go anywhere at first. The British music weeklies slagged it, radio didn't play it, and it limped to number 78 on the charts. Pablo Honey, the band's full-length debut, appeared in February 1993, supported by the single "Anyone Can Play Guitar," but neither release gained much traction in their native U.K.

and that May's non-LP single, "Pop Is Dead," didn't help matters much, either. By that point, however, "Creep" started to gain attention in other territories. First, the song became a hit in Israel, but the bigger waves came from the United States, which was in the throes of the alternative rock revolution. Influential San Francisco radio station KITS added "Creep" to their playlist and it spread along the west coast and onto MTV as it became a genuine hit, nearly topping Billboard's Modern Rock chart and reaching 34 on the Hot 100, a big achievement for a British guitar band. A re-released "Creep" turned into a British Top Ten hit, peaking at number seven in the autumn of 1993. The band who'd had no success suddenly had more than it could handle. Radiohead kept touring Pablo Honey into 1994, but no subsequent hits were forthcoming, raising the spectre of the band as a possible one-hit wonder -- a criticism that weighed heavily on the group, who were anxious to record their new songs.

They received the opportunity early in 1994, entering the studio to work with producer John Leckie -- then best-known for his work with the Stone Roses -- with My Iron Lung, an EP released in late 1994, being the first music released from the sessions. Muscular and ambitious, the EP provided a good indication of what would come on 1995's The Bends. Released in March 1995, The Bends not only found Radiohead growing musically -- it was dense and expansive, without skimping on songs -- but also in reputation, as critics in the U.K. embraced the band with the audience eventually following: none of the first three singles ("High and Dry," "Fake Plastic Trees," "Just") rose above 17 on the U.K. charts but the final single, "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," wound up reaching five in early 1996. Radiohead's rise may have been assisted by the mania cultivated by Brit-pop, a term that didn't quite suit the band -- they were far artier and rock-oriented -- but nevertheless stoked interest in indie guitar bands, which the quintet certainly was.

Over in U.S., The Bends stalled out at 88 on the Billboard charts but the record gained a cult following among listeners and the band never stopped touring, taking North American opening slots for R.E.M. in 1995 and Alanis Morissette in 1996. During 1995 and 1996, the group recorded new material with Nigel Godrich -- an engineer on The Bends sessions who was now the band's producer -- with songs slowly creeping out during the course of the year. "Lucky" showed up on War Child's 1995 charity LP The Help Album, "Talk Show Host" appeared on a B-side, and "Exit Music (For a Film)" showed up on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet. The latter showed up on OK Computer, the June 1997 album that proved pivotal in Radiohead's career. "Paranoid Android," a twitchy suite released as a single in May of that year, suggested the ambition of OK Computer -- and by reaching number three, it was the band's biggest hit to date in the U.K., placing them on the cusp of a breakthrough.

A breakthrough is precisely what OK Computer turned out to be, a record that proved pivotal not just for Radiohead but for the direction of '90s rock. Greeted with enthusiastic reviews and corresponding strong sales, OK Computer closed the doors on the hedonism of Brit-pop and the dour after-effects of grunge while opening a new path to sober, adventurous art-rock where electronics co-existed with guitars. Over the next few years, the band's influence would become readily apparent, but the album made a sizable impact upon its release, too, debuting at number one in the U.K. and earning a Grammy for Best Alternative Album. Radiohead supported it with an international tour, documented in Meeting People Is Easy. By the time Meeting People Is Easy showed up in theaters, the group began work on their fourth album, once again reuniting with producer Godrich. The resulting Kid A doubled down on the experimentalism of OK Computer, embracing electronics and threading in jazz. Appearing in October in 2000, Kid A was one of the first major albums to be pirated through file-sharing services, but this bootlegging had no apparent effect on the sales of the record: it debuted at number one in the U.K.

and the U.S., becoming their first American chart-topper. Once again, the album took home the prize for Best Alternative Album at the Grammys and although it didn't produce any hit singles -- indeed, no singles were released from the record -- it was certified platinum in several territories. Amnesiac, a collection of new material initiated during the Kid A sessions, appeared in June of 2001, topping the U.K. charts and reaching two in the U.S. Two singles were pulled from the album -- "Pyramid Song" and "Knives Out" -- a signal that the album was more commercially accessible than its predecessor. At the end of the year, the band issued I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, and by the summer of 2002, they turned their attention to recording a new album with Godrich. The resulting Hail to the Thief appeared in June of 2003, once again debuting in the upper reaches of the international charts -- number one in the U.K. and number three in the U.S.

-- and the group supported the album with live dates culminating in a headlining appearance at the 2004 Coachella Festival that coincided with the release of the B-sides and remix collection COM LAG, a record that helped close out their contract with EMI. Over the next couple of years, Radiohead entered a hiatus as individual members pursued solo projects. Yorke released the heavily electronic solo collection The Eraser in 2006, and Jonny Greenwood embarked on a side career as a composer, beginning with 2004's Bodysong and then striking a fruitful collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson for 2007's There Will Be Blood; Greenwood would also work on Anderson's subsequent films The Master and Inherent Vice. During all this, the group tentatively chipped away at their first post-EMI album. Some unsuccessful sessions with Spike Stent led the band back to Godrich by the end of 2006, and the group completed recording in June of 2007. Still without a record label, they decided to release the album digitally through their official website, letting users pay whatever they wanted for a download of the album.

This novel strategy acted as the album's own promotion -- most of the articles about the release claimed it was revolutionary -- and In Rainbows allegedly moved over a million downloads on the first day of its release in October 2007. In December, the album received a physical release in the U.K., followed by a January 2008 physical release in the U.S.; the record sold well, debuting at number one in the U.K., and it earned Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. Radiohead toured in support of In Rainbows into 2009, during which time EMI released Radiohead: The Best Of in June of 2008. The band took time off in 2010, which allowed Yorke to form a band called Atoms for Peace with producer Godrich and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. During this time, drummer Phil Selway released his debut solo album, Familial. By early 2011, the group finished a new album and, like In Rainbows before it, Radiohead initially released The King of Limbs digitally through their website.

The downloads appeared in February, with the physical copies appearing in March; the album reportedly shifted upwards of 400,000 digital copies upon its release. That autumn brought the release of the remix album TKOL RMX 1234567, and the band continued to tour The King of Limbs material into 2012. Once the tour wrapped up, the group took some quiet time as a new round of solo projects appeared. Atoms for Peace released Amok in February 2013 and Yorke put out Tomorrow's Modern Boxes in September 2014, just a month before Selway issued his second album, Weatherhouse. In the autumn of 2014, the band began work on a new album and they continued to record throughout 2015, releasing only "Spectre" -- a proposed James Bond theme rejected by the filmmakers -- that year.

The ninth Radiohead album, A Moon Shaped Pool, appeared on May 8, 2016, preceded earlier in the week by the singles "Burn the Witch" and "Daydreaming." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Top Albums Kid A - Rolling Stone Kid A All Stories The first track on Radiohead's fourth album is called "Everything in Its Right Place." Actually, nothing in the song sounds like it is in its proper place. An electric piano marches in arrhythmic circles, crisscrossed by the wheeze of an asthmatic synthesizer and intrusive bursts of machine babble. The watery croon of singer Thom Yorke seeps in and out of earshot like whale song. And the words, such as they are, just hang in the air like comic-strip thought balloons: "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon. . . . There are two colors in my head. . . . What is that she'd tried to say?" More News All Stories This is pop? Radiohead are a rock band: guitarists Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, bassist Colin Greenwood, drummer Phil Selway and Yorke on voice and lyrics.

The British group's first three albums — Pablo Honey (1993), The Bends (1995) and OK Computer (1997) — are all classic-rock thrillers, sparkling adventures in the radical-populist tradition of the Beatles in the late 1960s; the early, galactic-rock Pink Floyd; and R.E.M. (pick any era). But Kid A is all blur. It is a kind of virtual rock in which the roots have been cut away, and the formal language — hook, riff, bridge — has been warped, liquefied and, in some songs, thrown out altogether. If you're looking for instant joy and easy definition, you are swimming in the wrong soup. Power chords are sparse; linear grooves even scarcer. Keyboards are programmed to mimic human speech; Yorke's voice, in turn, is squashed into a Kraftwerk-ian bleat in the title song. The crusty funk of "The National Anthem" ends with what sounds like a New Orleans brass band walking into a brick wall. "In Limbo" is just that, a repetitive cascade of gorgeous guitar and pert electric piano.

"How to Disappear Completely" moves like an ice floe: cold-blue folk rock with just a faint hint of heartbeat. Radiohead always make you dig for the humanity in their music. Their best and biggest singles — "Creep," "Fake Plastic Trees," "Lucky" — have all been deceptive bundles of wounded flesh, exquisitely camouflaged in taut, arch distemper. Kid A is even harder to decode. When Yorke sings here, it's as if his voice is going the wrong way — not out from his mouth but back into his head, where the notes and words reverberate against his skull, blunting pronunciation and meaning. According to a transcription on one Radiohead Web site, Yorke is singing "What's going on?" over and over in "The National Anthem." On the record, it sounds more like Yorke is moaning "So alone, so alone." It could be neither; it could be both. Yorke isn't telling; Kid A comes without printed lyrics. But the whole point of Kid A is that there are no sure things, in pop or anything else — and that our best intentions and finely tuned plans are often just fuck-ups waiting to happen.

In a recent Web chat, Yorke claimed that the album title refers to "the first human clone — I bet it has already happened." For all of its apparent inscrutability, Kid A is, in fact, a clear-eyed space opera about a plausible future — a generation raised like plant life. And inside the hermetic electronics and art-pop frost is a heated argument about conformity, individuality and the messy consequences of playing God. You can definitely hear something, or someone, kicking its way into consciousness. In "How to Disappear Completely," Yorke's particle-beam tenor flickers with both the thrill of invisibility ("That's not me/I go, where I please") and the helplessness of a life without identity. You also hear things falling apart: "Idioteque" is silvery techno pocked with insidious smarm; "Morning Bell" is soft, black psychosis, perversely brightened by church-bell- and sea-gull-like guitar. "Optimistic" is anything but.

The track is knockout spunk rock with a catchy, glancing echo of R.E.M.'s "The One I Love." But the kick comes with an ugly twist — Yorke in the catbird seat, Genetic Central, turning his back on his creations: "Big fish eat the little ones/Not my problem. . . ." There is another new Radiohead album: A second record, begun concurrently with Kid A, is slated for completion and release next year. Maybe the band saved all of the straight pop magic for that one. Hopefully not — in pop music, clarity isn't everything. Any album that gives up all of its secrets in the first go-round isn't built to last. Kid A is a work of deliberately inky, often irritating obsession. There are times, like on "Idioteque" and the Yorke-free electronic instrumental, "Treefingers," when the record feels absolutely airless, entombed in chrome. But this is pop, a music of ornery, glistening guile and honest ache, and it will feel good under your skin once you let it get there. There is also a moral to this mischief: that a manufactured child, by nature or nurture, is no child at all.

It is product. Kid A is not. Radiohead: Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer (reissues) :: Music :: Reviews :: Radiohead :: Paste OK Computer: 100/100 First three albums took now legendary band from vacuous to visionary While the British press argued over whether Oasis’ Definitely Maybe or Blur’s Parklifesavior of mid-’90s U.K. rock, Radiohead sneaked a spanner into the works that went virtually unnoticed—an eight-song EP called My Iron Lung. In 1994, no one expected much from the little English grunge band that had charted the previous year with “Creep,” a tune that sounded almost exactly like Nirvana. But My Iron Lungstunning beauty and complexity, worlds from Radiohead ’s 1993 debut, Pablo Honeythreatened to implode and Blur began mimicking American indie rock, Radiohead produced OK Computer, one of pop music’s most groundbreaking works. into expanded "special collector's edition" reissues of Radiohead ’s first three albums. It’s a body of work that traces the band’s phenomenal climb from faceless “alternative” to influential torchbearers of adventurous rock.

Each set includes two CDs—one containing the original album, and a second compiling early EPs, radio performances and other non-album tracks. The packages also include DVDs that collect the band’s videos, live performances and TV appearances. As bland as they often were, Radiohead ’s earliest performances provide glimpses of the band’s later greatness. Pablo Honey finds guitarist Jonny Greenwood mostly blasting out generic grunge riffs, but the noisy, dreampop-influenced squall at the end of “Blow Out” foreshadows the avant-rock chaos he’d build on. Thom Yorke had not yet developed his expressive reed of a voice, either.

Sporting a scruffy, dyed-blond look in the videos, his style is different on nearly every one of Pablo Honey’s tracks—imitations of Bono, Kurt Cobain, and even a Dylan-like lilt on the folky “Thinking About You.” Then there’s “Creep”—a catchy single, sure, but in 1993 its lyrics rang empty next to Nirvana’s “Dumb.” Two other Pablo HoneyWhispering” and “Anyone Can Play Guitar”—hint at Radiohead ’s later sound, but they’re still too derivative of U2 and Nirvana to stand on their own. What a difference two years can make. On The Bendsballads like “Fake Plastic Trees,” Radiohead ’s powerful new sound blows over Yorke’s voice like storm winds over a wheat field. If The Bends was the band’s giant leap, OK Computer blasted Radiohead into the stratosphere. It’s the masterpiece by which all their subsequent albums would be measured, the springboard from which the band would jump whole-hog into the electronic experimentation of Kid A.

A dynamic progressive-rock concept album revolving around the breakdown of humanity, OK Computer easily stands the test of time, its loose storyline making an even a stronger statement amid today’s economic clusterfuck. In the multi-part “Paranoid Android,” Yorke spits invective against the very corporate culture that’s largely responsible for the world’s current woes: “Ambition makes you look pretty ugly / Kicking, squealing Gucci little piggy.” The one fair criticism of OK Computer is that Yorke’s worldview consists only of icy complaints. He even seems to be ridiculing the album’s one hopeful protagonist—the guy in “Lucky” who’s dying (either literally or figuratively) in the muck of an airplane crash, yet still desperately crying out, “This time I feel my luck could change.” Fifteen years after Definitely Maybe, Parklife and My Iron LungBlur are to Radiohead what the ’80s bands Big Country and The Alarm were to U2 in its prime—still slogging it out but producing nothing memorable.

Radiohead, over the course of just three albums and a handful of EPs in the mid ’90s, went from average alt-rock poseurs to one of pop music’s most innovative and influential acts. Radiohead - Music on Google Play Radiohead About the artist Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, and Phil Selway. They have worked with producer Nigel Godrich and cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. After signing to EMI in 1991, Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992. It became a worldwide hit after the release of their debut album, Pablo Honey. Their popularity and critical standing rose in the United Kingdom with the release of their second album, The Bends. Radiohead's third album, OK Computer, propelled them to international fame; with an expansive sound and themes of modern alienation, it is often acclaimed as a landmark record of the 1990s and one of the best albums of all time.

The group's next albums Kid A and Amnesiac, recorded simultaneously, marked a dramatic change in style, incorporating influences from experimental electronic music, 20th-century classical music, krautrock, and jazz. Despite initially dividing listeners, Kid A was later named the best album of the decade by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the Times. 1 $10.49 A Moon Shaped Pool is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released as a download and on paid streaming services on 8 May 2016. CD and LP releases followed in June 2016 throug... 1 1 $10.32 The King of Limbs is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download in MP3 and WAV formats. CD and 12" vinyl versions were released on 2... 1 1 $10.49 In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download. It was followed by a physical release internationally b...

1 1 $10.32 In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download. It was followed by a physical release internationally b... 1 1 $10.49 Hail to the Thief is the sixth album by the English rock band Radiohead, produced by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. The final album released under Radiohead's recording contract with EM... 1 1 $10.49 OK Computer took the arty guitar rock ambitions of Radiohead's early years to an epic and sprawling conclusion, clearing the way for follow-up Kid A to reinvent them as the ever-evolving experimen... 1 1 $10.49 OK Computer is the third studio album by English alternative rock band Radiohead, released in 1997 on Parlophone and Capitol Records. OK Computer was the first self-produced Radiohead album, with a...

1 1 $10.49 The Bends is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by Capitol Records in the United State... 1 Thom Yorke 0 Thomas Edward "Thom" Yorke is an English musician best known as the singer and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, Yorke mainly plays guitar and pi... 0 The Smashing Pumpkins 0 Of all the major alternative rock bands of the early '90s, the Smashing Pumpkins were the group least influenced by traditional underground rock. Lead guitarist/songwriter Billy Corgan fashioned an... 0 Beck 0 Beck Hansen, known mononymously as Beck, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is mostly known for his musical composition, as well as a palette o... 0 Atoms For Peace 0 Atoms for Peace are an English-American alternative rock supergroup, formed in 2009 by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke to perform songs from his debut solo album, The Eraser.

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They are named after the nearby town of the same name, eight miles west of Bristol, along the coast. Portishead consists of Geoff Barrow, B... 0 Philip Selway 0 Philip James "Phil" Selway is an English musician, singer, and songwriter best known as the drummer of English rock group Radiohead. In addition to drums, he provides backing vocals, along with occ... 0 Zwan 0 Zwan was an American alternative rock band that was formed by members of The Smashing Pumpkins, Slint, Tortoise, Chavez, and A Perfect Circle. Zwan was started in late 2001 by Billy Corgan, lead si... 0 Muse 0 Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard. Muse released their debut album, Showbiz, in 1999, sh... 0

Question: Which British group released the albums 'Pablo Honey', 'The Bands' and 'OK Computer' in the 1990s?
Answer: Radiohead